With some regulators operating under both civil and criminal regimes the cost of non-compliance and subsequent regulatory investigation or intervention can be huge including civil financial sanctions, criminal prosecution, loss of business, reputational damage, remedial work and loss of staff morale.
With a constant theme of increasing regulation, ensuring your business is compliant is undoubtedly a daunting task. Whether your business is in the regulated sector or not, with help from our specialist team, we will help you navigate the wider and sector specific compliance requirements.
With our combined experience of advising and representing clients in investigations and prosecutions by the full range of regulators, we know what happens when systems fail and how things can go wrong. We bring that practical experience and knowledge to the compliance advice we provide.
We believe in the motto “prevention is better than cure” so we provide pragmatic advice on a wide range of regulatory and criminal compliance issues including:
- Anti-Money Laundering
- Adequate procedures and the Bribery Act 2010
- Preventing tax evasion and the Criminal Finances Act 2017
- Export control and sanctions compliance
- Modern Slavery Act compliance
- GDPR & Data Protection
- Financial Conduct Authority compliance
- Counter Fraud and Internal Investigations
- Advertising clearance
- Due diligence
- Health and Safety
- Food Safety
- Fire Safety
- Training
The Business Regulation and Compliance team can help you with:
- Identifying the legislation and regulation that applies to your business;
- Undertaking legal compliance “health checks” on your business;
- Undertaking risk assessments of specific areas of your business;
- Reviewing existing policies and drafting new ones;
- Drafting and implementing crisis response plans;
- Responding to production orders and other information requests;
- Legal Audits;
- Investigation management;
- Reporting obligations both internally and externally;
- A legal review of any potential target purchases;
- Training staff, from employees to the board.
Recent experience
- Providing a tailored client branded online e-learning training course for the staff of dozens of clients in relation to anti-bribery compliance (more than 7,500 users);
The provision of anti-bribery training to boards, senior management and international compliance teams at a number of global companies; - Advising on Sponsorships Agreements integral to an organisation's current business structure;
- Advising major manufacturers on controls required to be put in place with reference to third party sales incentive schemes;
- Undertaking global risk assessments for multi-national organisations;
- Advising on the treatment of facilitation payments for organisations operating in 'high risk' countries and drafting appropriate policies and procedures for handling them, as well as advising on necessary disclosures to be made to the relevant authorities;
- Drafting an HM Revenue & Customs raid protocol for a firm of accountants;
- Advising compliance professionals in relation to suspicious activity reports (SAR’s), anti-money laundering compliance, compliance with production orders and resisting production of material under the order;
- Advising a private equity house in respect of the implementation of anti-financial crime procedures dealing specifically with obligations arising from the Criminal Finances Act 2017 in respect of the prevention of the facilitation of tax evasion. Specifically advising on the processes and preventative measures required to afford the company with a defence under the legislation;
- Applying for enforcement undertakings to avoid prosecution for a number of clients.
